Enhanced

  “Apparently they give special dispensations to visiting dignitaries and the like who wish to come to Zeaga 4 but retain their ability to feel,” Garron sent. “But on one rule they will not bend—everyone who visits the planet’s surface must have an enhancement.”

  “And not a boob job or an eye lift either,” Tess put in. “We’re talking some kind of mechanical addition like a scope for your eyes or a brand new bionic leg or something like that.”

  “Oh, that poor girl!” Becca sounded horrified. “What is she going to do?”

  “A better question might be what will her father do?” Truth sent grimly. “When his cherished daughter comes back modified in ways the citizens of Earth cannot and do not want to understand, what kind of vengeance will he try to take upon all Kindred because of the actions of one?”

  “It’s a pretty scary scenario,” Becca sent. “Which is why we need to break this connection now and let the two of you get moving.”

  “Your best bet is probably to go back to the HKR building in Asheville,” Truth advised. “I believe the Commander there has some extra resources at his disposal.”

  “Oh yes, Commander Stavros,” Tess exclaimed. “He’s the same one who loaned us the shuttle to go to Zeaga 4 in the first place. He also gave me a change of clothes and let me call you guys when we thought Garron had gone D’fex.”

  “I had gone D’fex,” Garron said aloud, taking her hand in his. “You saved me, Tess. If you hadn’t come for me—”

  “Oh, Garron…” She climbed into his lap again and pressed her face to his throat, breathing in his warm bonding scent. “I just—”

  “Still here, guys—okay? We can’t hear what you’re saying but we can guess what’s going on,” Becca sent.

  “And as romantic as it is, you don’t have time for it,” Truth added. “Get up and get back to Asheville now!”

  “Right.” Garron gave Tess a swift kiss and the two of them got up and started pulling on their clothes.

  “We’ll go right away,” Tess sent. “But try to stay in touch, okay?”

  “We’ll try to. We’re not sure if Earth has technology that can block the Think-me calls now or not,” Becca sent. “According to Sylvan, they’ve been working on a lot of new things which could spell trouble for us up here on the Mother Ship. And unfortunately, a lot of it is based on technology the Kindred gave them in the first place!”

  “Stay safe!” Tess sent.

  “You too, hon! And now we’d better let you go. We’ll bespeak you later with more news if we can.”

  “Goodbye, Brother. Be well,” Truth sent.

  And then the four way connection was broken and Tess only felt herself and Garron in her head.

  “Whew.” She looked at him worriedly. “What are we going to do?”

  “Get back to Asheville to start with and see if Commander Stavros can help us. If he can’t…” He shrugged. “I’m not sure what might happen next.”

  “I don’t understand why they can’t just send someone after that girl and bring her back,” Tess said, buttoning her blouse.

  “Are you serious? Remove a female from a male who is claiming her?” Garron gave her a wide-eyed look as he pulled on his black flight leathers. “That is absolutely never done—it would be interfering with the sacred will of the Goddess who puts all males and females together.”

  “Well, I don’t want to stomp on anyone’s religion,” Tess said, struggling into her jeans. “But it seems like maybe they could make an exception to avoid an international incident. Or an interstellar one, I guess.”

  Garron shook his head. “Didn’t you see Zeaga 4 when we were orbiting it? It’s a highly mechanized and advanced society. They have formidable weapons—trying to reverse Six’s claim on the Earth girl would doubtless end in bloodshed. And the Dark Kindred have a much better chance of hurting the Mother Ship than anything they might have developed here on Earth. At least, that would be my guess.”

  “Well, I don’t understand why Six claimed her at all. He seemed so emotionless, so cold when I met him.” Tess made a face. “What does he want with that poor girl anyway if he doesn’t feel anything for her?”

  “I imagine he’s asking himself that right about now,” Garron murmured. “But I’m afraid he might not like the answer…”

  Chapter Eleven

  Six watched Mei-Li from the corner of his eye as they approached the medical barge. She hadn’t said a thing since their last exchange, not even when they flew into the rift—the huge red gash in space which took them from her part of the universe to his instantaneously. She simply sat there, her long, silky black hair like a curtain between them so that he couldn’t even see her small, lovely face. All he could glimpse from time to time were the black frames of her oculars.

  He wondered if he ought to say something—maybe apologize again for making her uncomfortable. He hadn’t known that the simple act of healing her knee would cause such a strong reaction. Not in Mei-Li…or in himself either.

  Against his will, he remembered the warm scent of her arousal. Gods, it had been intoxicating…bewitching. Like nothing he had ever scented before. And it wasn’t just her scent he found enthralling. There was also the salty-sweet taste of her skin and soft little sounds she’d made when he licked her—Six didn’t think she knew she was making them which only made them that much more intriguing. Altogether, healing Mei-Li had been a unique experience—one which Six had to admit, had affected him deeply.

  For a moment, he had actually wished to lick higher, to pull back the lacy barrier of her panties and explore her pussy with his tongue. This wasn’t something he had expected to want, not even after he had read the Claiming Period rules and learned that it would be expected of him in their third solar week together. But just for a split second the urge had been so strong he could hardly stop himself from burying his face between her thighs and finding out if she tasted as good as she smelled. Only his promise to Mei-Li that he wouldn’t taste her on this occasion had stopped him.

  Six frowned. Why had he had such strong urges? Why was it so difficult to make himself stop?

  It was simply a new experience, he told himself uneasily. And more Kindred instincts coming to the surface. After all, the entire point of claiming a female is to breed with her.

  Not that it would actually come to that, he was certain. Oh, he was willing to follow the Claiming Period rules to the letter, as Chancellor Terex had specified, but bonding sex would not be possible—not with his emotion damper implant still in place. And with no bond to tie them together, Mei-Li would have to return to her home world eventually.

  Six experienced a strange hollowness in his stomach at the thought. He tried to imagine himself flying in the other direction, taking Mei-Li back to where she belonged but somehow he couldn’t do it. Couldn’t—

  “This is Med Barge Three calling unidentified shuttle. Please identify yourself and state your intentions,” said a voice from the incoming speaker.

  Mei-Li jumped in her seat. “What? What did they say? What language was that?”

  “The universal Kindred dialect,” Six answered her in English. He then asked permission to land in the Kindred dialect and was directed to a private docking bay for Enhanced Ones only.

  “It’s so guttural—almost like German,” Mei-Li said, frowning at the speaker.

  “I do not know that language. The only Earth dialect I learned was English in order to converse with you,” Six said. “But you will need to be able to converse in my dialect as well. How rapidly are you able to learn languages?”

  “How rapidly are you able to learn languages?” she shot back. “I’m fluent in English of course, and Spanish because of work. Oh, and I know some Mandarin because my adopted mother thought it was important for me to understand my birth culture but I didn’t learn any of those languages overnight.”

  “It took me several hours of intense study to pick up English although, as we discussed earlier, I am still learning the connotations of some wor
ds.”

  “Yes, we did establish that, I guess.” Mei-Li’s cheeks went pink and her heart rate became elevated.

  Six berated himself—apparently he had caused her embarrassment again.

  “Forgive me,” he said. “I did not mean to allude to our earlier conversation about the correct terminology for the female sex.”

  “No, that’s uh, okay,” Mei-Li said quickly. “But did you really say you picked up English in just a few hours?”

  Six nodded. “Languages are a Kindred strength. Because we are genetic traders—or our ancestors were anyway—we are able to learn almost any language quickly. However, I will not think less of you if you take a little more time.”

  “Gee, thanks,” she muttered.

  “You say that you cannot learn a new language ‘overnight’,” Six said. “We can stay at least a day on the medical barge before we have to leave for the surface of Z4. Will that be sufficient time?”

  “To learn a whole new alien language?” Mei-Li made an incredulous noise. “Hardly. I guess I’m going to be stuck asking you to translate so I hope you’re not planning on going off and leaving me.”

  “I would not leave you alone in an unfamiliar situation,” Six said gravely. “But if you really fear that learning my language will be difficult, perhaps an injection of translation bacteria is in order.”

  “An injection of what?”

  “Translation bacteria. It was developed by the Kindred for their brides—so that they might understand the languages they encountered when they traveled with their new mates,” Six explained. “It is not something we of the Dark Kindred use much since we generally do not call brides but I am certain Yipper can find some in the memory banks.”

  He turned to the speaker and put in a request.

  “Who did you say?” Mei-Li asked. “I…oh…” She stopped her question in mid sentence, apparently entranced by the sights outside the viewscreen.

  They were docking now and Six was bringing their shuttle in low, straight through the atmosphere bubble that surrounded the entrance to the special docking bay. It was a pure black space—with walls and floors a uniform glossy midnight color.

  Several other shuttles were parked within its vast, black space but Six saw nothing to be surprised about. Yet Mei-Li exhibited signs of intense curiosity and awe—perhaps tinged with a bit of fear. Six wondered why. He also wondered if he was reading her correctly. He thought he was getting better at recognizing her emotions but they were not nearly so easy a language to learn as her spoken dialect.

  Clearly it would take a considerable amount of study to be able to read the female he was claiming more clearly. Not that Six minded. He found he was anticipating getting to know Mei-Li better…in every way.

  * * * * *

  Mei-Li stared in awe at the vast, pure black space they were landing in. The floor and walls were so dark and shiny she almost felt like they were parking the shuttle in the middle of an oil slick—an odd, almost surreal sensation.

  A memory came back to her—a report she’d done back in middle school about the famous La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. The pits looked innocent—like pools of dark water. Back in prehistoric times, many thirsty animals had wandered in unawares, just looking for a drink. But once ensnared by the gummy, sucking tar, large animals like mammoths and wooly bison were unable to get out. Their cries of distress in turn called carnivores like saber tooth tigers who came for lunch…and stayed forever. Because once an animal, for whatever reason, stepped into that oily, sticky black slick, their fate was sealed and there was no going back.

  Mei-Li shivered at the memory. Don’t be silly, she told herself uneasily. Just because the place reminds you of the tar pits doesn’t mean it’s anything like them. But the idea that she would be stuck and unable to leave Six’s world once she set foot outside the shuttle was a hard one to shake, no matter what she told herself.

  The door opened and Six stepped down, then turned to offer her a hand. Mei-Li started to take it…then hesitated. She simply couldn’t make herself take that step.

  Six frowned. “Is something wrong?”

  “I just…I can’t.” She looked at him. “You never answered my question—what happens after a month is up and the Claiming Period is over? Do I have to stay with you or can I…can I go home?”

  “After the Claiming Period is up, you are free to come back to your home world,” Six assured her rather stiffly, Mei-Li thought. “In fact, I will bring you back myself.”

  “So…you’re not going to try and get me to stay?”

  He shook his head. “I doubt my home world will be much to your liking. Your kind are not welcome there.”

  “My kind? What does that mean? Women? Minorities? What?” Mei-Li demanded.

  “Feelers.” He gave her a flat look. “Those with emotions. As I have told you before, we have no feelings on Z4—nor do we want them.”

  “Then why come get me at all?” Mei-Li asked. “If you’re not going to keep me past a month and you don’t think I’ll like your world, why didn’t you just leave me back on Earth? And don’t say you wanted to protect me—once you bring me back to Earth, I’ll be dealing with all the same crap all over again. Guys like Randy Dungston—the one whose bones you broke—are part of my everyday work.” She had a sudden thought. “Unless you’re planning to come back with me. But I really don’t think that would work out. You probably wouldn’t like Earth any more than I’ll like your place. And besides, we barely know each other.”

  “We will know each other better shortly,” Six said. “But no, I do not plan to return to Earth with you. After the Claiming Period is over, I fully expect us to part ways.” He didn’t sound particularly happy about it but then, he never sounded particularly happy about anything, Mei-Li reminded herself. Doubtless due to the whole “I have no emotions” thing he had going on.

  “Okay,” she said impatiently. “So I’m not staying with you and you’re not coming with me. Then why did you come to claim me? Was it the dreams? Did you come get me because of the dreams?”

  He frowned. “The dreams we shared were extremely…compelling. But they are not the reason I came to you. I…” He looked away. “I was ordered by my superior to come and claim you. I believe it is some kind of political gambit—I don’t know for certain.”

  Mei-Li put a hand on her hip. Now they were getting somewhere.

  “So you only came to get me because your boss told you to?”

  “I…” He shifted uneasily. “That is…the essence of it.”

  “So this is just business for you.” Mei-Li didn’t know whether to be relieved or insulted but she was definitely leaning towards insulted. “You came because you were ordered to and now I get a free one month vacation in a dystopian paradise and then you’ll bring me back home. Is that it?”

  He nodded reluctantly, Mei-Li thought.

  “Essentially.”

  “Fine.” She was beginning to be upset though she hardly knew why. All the stuff she’d heard back on Earth about how Kindred males were so protective and possessive of their Earth brides clearly didn’t apply here. Six was just following orders. What so now you’re upset that he’s not crazy obsessed with you and won’t make you stay on Planet No-Feels? demanded a sarcastic little voice in the back of her head. You ought to be dancing a jig for joy that he’s going to let you go with no problems once this stupid Claiming Period, whatever that entails, is all over.

  But somehow she couldn’t muster up even a single speck of joy. She just felt humiliated and angry. It was one thing to be stolen away from her planet by a man who was so in love with her that he couldn’t help himself and just had to come and get her. It was quite another to be taken for purely business purposes and told she would be returned soon, like a piece of reclaimed luggage nobody particularly wanted at the end of the allotted time.

  “Your heart rate and breathing have increased.” Six was looking at her cautiously. “Are you having negative emotions again?”

  ??
?Why do you care?” Mei-Li snapped. “I’m just business to you. Just a piece of luggage you had to pick up because your boss told you to.”

  “That is not—” he began.

  “So why are we bothering with any of this?” Mei-Li went on, ignoring him. She swept her arm out indicating the medical barge and all it entailed. “Why get me the translation virus or whatever it is and bother taking me to the planet’s surface at all? Why not just let me sit on the shuttle and play solitaire until the month is out and then you can take me back and get rid of me?”

  The look Six gave her was honestly confused. “Clearly you are having extremely negative emotions but I am not certain why. As to your question, you must come down to Z4 for our Claiming Period just as we must follow the rules and protocols proscribed for the period exactly. Anything less voids the Claiming Contract.”

  “Oh, well, we can’t have that,” Mei-Li said sarcastically.

  “No,” he said seriously. “We cannot.”

  Of all the irritating, obtuse men… Mei-Li wanted to stamp her foot in irritation but somehow she stopped herself.

  “Fine, we’ll follow the rules, whatever they are and I’ll come down to the planet—to Z4 with you. Just don’t try to pretend this is anything but business for you and don’t spout any more crap about protecting me and how every hair on my head is precious because clearly that’s bullshit.”

  She was surprised at how angry and hurt she felt but she couldn’t help herself. After the tender way he had healed her knee and the things he’d said on the ride over here, she had almost begun to feel…to feel what? Special? Cherished? Mei-Li didn’t know and it didn’t matter now anyway because obviously everything he had said and done was just an act.

  She started to take the step down from the shuttle, so angry she didn’t even care about her previous fears. But Six was there, blocking her way. Though she was still standing in the shuttle and he was on the ground, he was tall enough that they were eye-to-eye. She didn’t want to look at him but he pinned her with his steel-gray gaze.

  “Mei-Li…” His deep voice was almost a growl. “It is true that I was ordered to claim you but it is also true that I feel extremely protective of you. When I saw you during my rest and recharging period—in my dreams—all I could think about was how tiny, how frail you looked. It concerned me deeply.”